Relief Wood Carving – the fine art of using chisels, gouges, and knives to remove small chips from a flat wood board to create a three dimensional design. That design can be worked as a low relief with smooth side walls to each element, a high relief carving where undercuts are made on higher elements to cast shadows on lower elements, and in intaglio where the design is cut in reverse – down into the wood to create a mold.
I have been working on three brand new e-projects for my pattern website at ArtDesignsStudio.com and in today’s work of one of these new e-projects I realized I had a set of images that taught the power of working with pure color hues.
I’d like to share these images with you !!! Please click on any image for a full-sized photo.
We work with three types of color in relationship to their tonal values – pastels, pure hues, and jewel tones.
Pure hue = a color that has not been altered by the use of white, gray, or black as red, yellow, and blue. Tonal value = the amount of white, black, or gray in a color as a pale gray tone to a dark gray tone. Pastels = pure color hues that have white added as pink, pale yellow, and baby blue. Jewel tones = pure color hues that have black added as maroon, deep gold, and gunmetal blue.
Tonal values in pyrography are what we use to shade and contour an area of the design, working in sepia (brown) tones.
1 The images below show my pyrography shading for one of my upcoming new projects. I am working on birch plywood using my Colwood burner with my loop-tip pen and a soft, scrubbie stroke. The image to the right is the gray scaled photo of this shading which shows the black tonal value range.
2 After my shading was worked I added my fine line doodle detailing using my ball-tip pen at a medium-hot setting. Part of that detailing step included creating some solid black areas in the design. Again, to the right is the gray scale image, showing only the black tonal values. All tonal values to this point have been specifically created with the tool tip and burner temperature setting in my pyrography.
3 But what happens to that pyrography tonal value work when colored pencils are added to give individual coloring to the design. In this photo you can see the added color pencil work, using artist quality pencils which contain little or no chalk base. Inexpensive colored pencils, or school quality sets often contain chalk as the base filler which adds a white, gray, or black toning to the color hue. Artist quality pencils use either a wax base which makes the blending of the colors easy without changing the color tones or if you are using watercolor pencils no base at all.
I am working with pure hues – red, yellow, and blue or secondary and tertiary mixes of those hues. I have used some white as shown in the small left-side tear drop accents and I have worked a graphite pencil shading in the background area directly to the birch plywood.
4 Now let’s compare these three stages of work. Stage one is the simple pyro shading, stage two is the pyro detailing, and stage three is the addition of pure color hues using colored pencils. Now compare the gray scale photo of stage two to stage three and you will see that the colors have added very little to almost no tonal value to the work.
This means that all of my pyrography tonal value shading remains unchanged and therefore totally in my control even when I am laying colored pencil over the work !!!!
OK … I’m off to work on your new e-projects but will get back to you if I come across another ‘quick tip’ idea.
Even though the 1/8″thick plywood can warp with high-heat burning or high-humidity conditions, it is so light weight that the small quartz battery clock hanger fully supports the project – you can hang this anywhere.
My finished painted daisies pyrography clock is show displayed on a small wood easel and, while meant to go into my kitchen is still sitting on my computer desk.
Your free Lora S. Irish pattern is just below the supply list.
Step 1: Prepare your wood plaque by lightly sanding the wood with 220- to 320-grit sandpaper, working the sanding strokes with the grain of the wood. Remove all sanding dust. Using graphite paper, trace your pattern. Using the ball-tip pen and my Walnut Hollow Creative tool, I burned the general outlines of the daisy pattern, numbers, and quote onto my wood plaque. I used a medium-hot setting of 6 – 8.
When the outline is completed, erase any graphite lines or pencil lines that remain from the pattern tracing step.
Step 1
Step 2: I was not happy with my lettering burn, but very pleased with my outline work. My solution was to create a collage paper piece to add to the plywood that would carry my quote while covering up my wood burned letters. I chose a heavy, yet flexible antique paper that easily went through my home computer printer. You can see that collage piece temporarily placed over the burned letter.
Step 2
Step 3: Still using the ball-tip pen and a medium heat setting of 4 – 6, I have added shading to the background area of the pattern. Lowering the temperature a bit more to the 3 – 4 heat level, I then worked light shading into the flowers and leaves.
Step 3
Step 4: When your burning is done its time to get out your favorite artist-quality colored pencil set. Do a quick google image search under ‘painted daisy chrysanthemums’ for coloring ideas.
I used tones of yellow through bright red for the petals, yellow greens for the inner flower leaves, and green teals for the background leaves. Tones of sienna, golden brown, and chocolate make up the flower centers.
Both white colored pencil and white chalk pastel pencil was used to brighten the highlights of the work.
Lay several thin lines of quick-dry tacky glue to the back of your collage paper. Use a stiff piece of card stock to evenly spread the glue. Position your quote to your plaque and press lightly into place. Place a heavy book on top of the quote to press the paper evenly to the wood and let dry.
Several light coats of matte spray sealer. The sealer protects your raw wood, colored pencil work, and collage paper.
Step 4
Step 5: Here’s my finished clock with the quartz clock movement inserted, bees in place, and just one fun silk flower.
Hope you have fun creating your own pyrography clock! Thanks for stopping by my blob ~ Lora
Your grip on your burning pen is similar to your hand grip on any writing tool as pen or pencil. The pen is held below the burning tip between the thumb and index finger with a loose, comfortable pressure. The back of the pen handle rests on your third finger which is slightly bent.
The four-point grip, with your thumb and first two fingers holding the pen and your smallest finger balanced on the board, is used on your pen whether you are using the side of your pen tip of the point. Only the angle of your hand to the wood changes to lift the pen tip to its finest point.
Lift your hand from the wood, don’t rest the side of your palm directly on the wood as this limits your ability to move smoothly over the pattern. Extend you small fingertip to lightly touch the wood, using it as a depth guide and steadying point against your board.
Keep the side of your arm and elbow off the table. This lets your entire arm move during long strokes. This is a four-point grip – thumb and index finger to hold, third finger to rest the pen, and small finger to anchor the hand on the wood.
One-temperature and rheostat burning pens have a much thicker handle because that handle houses the burning unit. Although your fingers are wider apart then when using a variable-temperature pen, you use the same four-point grip.
Do not over grip or heavy-hand your pen. A light finger pressure is all that is needed to keep the pen in place and moving freely. If your hand becomes tired or sore as you work you are probably over-gripping the pen.
Tips comes in many shapes and bends from the tight bend used in the standard writing tips to half circles that can create fish scales and even square tubes that make a textured pattern on your board.
BASIC PEN
I use four basic tools throughout this book – the loop-tip, ball-tip, spear shader, and spoon shader. These are the four snap-in interchangeable tips that comes with the Walnut Hollow Creative Tool – shown below.
Each pen tip creates its own width and shape of line burn, and therefore is more suitable for specific textures. Thin edged spear or curved shader tip cut thin, deep lines. Loop and ball tip pens burn thick, shallow lines. A basic beginner’s set of tips may include a tightly bent loop writing tip , a ball point writing tip, a flat spoon-shaped shader, a curved-edge spear shader. These tips will burn any pattern or project in this e-book. Specialty tips can be added as you discover your style of burning.
INTERCHANGEABLE V. FIXED TIP PENS
Tip shapes and names vary, depending on the manufacturer of your burning unit and are often offered in several sizes. Please check the website for your unit for more specific tips that are available for your use. Variable temperature pens come in two varieties – fixed tip pens and interchangeable tip pens. A fixed tip pen has the burning wire permanently set in the pen. Some manufacturers create a interchangeable pen that allows different styles of tip to be inserted into the end of the pen.
All of my Optima 1 pens are fixed tip pens.
Interchangeable pens often allow you to purchase a wider variety of burning tips, a great advantage to the new pyrographer.
Each manufacturer creates their pens to specifically fit the electric voltage, wire, and connections used in their wood burning units. Although some manufacturers do sell conversion kits that allow you to use pens manufacturer by other companies on their units I do not recommend this practice.
Using another companies pens can void your warranty and can damage both your pens and your burning unit. When you purchase your variable temperature unit consider not only the power features of the unit but also the pen construction, how the pens connect to the unit, the guard grip construction, and the variety of tip profiles available for your unit.
The photo, above, shows five of my Colwood Detailer tips. The top three are permanent fixed tip pens while the bottom two are interchangeable tips.
We will take a closer look at the burn strokes each pen tip creates in just a few pages.